Search

Whole-genome sequencing data for 2,778 cancer samples from 2,658 unique donors across 38 cancer types is used to reconstruct the evolutionary history of cancer, revealing that driver mutations can precede diagnosis by several years to decades.

Many tumours exhibit hypoxia (low oxygen) and hypoxic tumours often respond poorly to therapy. Here, the authors quantify hypoxia in 1188 tumours from 27 cancer types, showing elevated hypoxia links to increased mutational load, directing evolutionary trajectories.

Large language models are increasingly used for diverse tasks, yet we have limited insight into their understanding of chemistry. Now ChemBench—a benchmarking framework containing more than 2,700 question–answer pairs—has been developed to assess their chemical knowledge and reasoning, revealing that the best models surpass human chemists on average but struggle with some basic tasks.

Linnerbauer and colleagues find that HB-EGF produced by reactive astrocytes is protective during autoimmune neuroinflammation, but epigenetically suppressed during late stages.

Analysis of ground-sourced and satellite-derived models reveals a global forest carbon potential of 226 Gt outside agricultural and urban lands, with a difference of only 12% across these modelling approaches.

Oncofetal (OnF) reprogramming, driven by YAP and AP-1, induces phenotypic plasticity and therapy resistance in WNT-dependent colorectal cancer (CRC). Targeting the OnF state in combination with chemotherapy substantially attenuates tumor growth in mouse models and patient-derived CRC tumoroids.

MultiSTAAR provides a general and flexible statistical framework for functionally informed multi-trait rare variant analysis of biobank-scale sequencing studies by jointly analyzing multiple traits and incorporating annotation information.

An analysis of 24,202 critical cases of COVID-19 identifies potentially druggable targets in inflammatory signalling (JAK1), monocyte–macrophage activation and endothelial permeability (PDE4A), immunometabolism (SLC2A5 and AK5), and host factors required for viral entry and replication (TMPRSS2 and RAB2A).

The study presents a modular DNA origami-based single-molecule nanosensor that separates sensing from the signal output. It achieves high fluorescence resonance energy transfer contrast and enables tuning of the response window for improved sensor specificity, multiplexing and logic sensing.

Anthropogenic ground-level ozone substantially reduces the productivity of tropical forests and so their carbon drawdown, according to ozone susceptibility experiments and dynamic global vegetation modelling.

Ritter et al. present a spatial transcriptomics and deep learning-based approach named NePSTA (neuropathology spatial transcriptomic analysis) and leverage it to improve neuropathological diagnostics and enhance central nervous system tumor subtype classification.

This study investigates how homeostatic mechanisms endow sensory representations in the auditory cortex with resilience against neuron loss. The map of sounds has the ability to recover after microablation by recruiting previously unresponsive neurons.

Analyses of 2,658 whole genomes across 38 types of cancer identify the contribution of non-coding point mutations and structural variants to driving cancer.

Genome-wide association analyses identify new risk loci for heart failure and its subtypes, extending understanding of the underlying biological pathways and disease mechanisms.

Broad-spectrum antibiotics can kill harmless bacteria in our intestine, thus facilitating invasion by antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE). Here, Yip et al. show that killing gut bacteria with antibiotics leads to enrichment of nutrients and depletion of inhibitory microbial metabolites, which overall potentiates CRE growth.

Post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) has heterogenous presentation and complex etiology. Here the authors profile peripheral blood of patients with PASC and analyze by machine-learning to identify immune and serology features that allow the stratification of PASC into inflammatory and non-inflammatory types for better diagnosis and therapy-planning.

The electro-oxidative synthesis of valued chemicals offers to enhance the overall efficiency and economic viability of renewable electrosynthesis systems. Here, the authors use dopant-tuned catalysts to promote the electrosynthesis of dimethyl carbonate from CO and methanol via oxidative carbonylation.

TGFβ superfamily proteins can affect cellular differentiation, thermogenesis, and fibrosis in mammalian adipose tissue. Here the authors described a role for the TGFβ superfamily protein GDF3 in the regulation of lipolysis, glucose tolerance and glycemic variability in mice.

Using sequencing and haplotype-resolved assembly of 65 diverse human genomes, complex regions including the major histocompatibility complex and centromeres are analysed.

FLuID enables privacy-preserving knowledge sharing in drug discovery using knowledge distillation. The results show that the approach expands applicability domains and fosters collaboration across organizations without compromising data privacy or security.

The chemical composition of the Galactic halo star J1010+2358 shows extremely low sodium and cobalt abundances, different from most other halo stars, indicative of a very metal-poor star being seeded with elements from a pair-instability supernova.

This study describes the integrative analysis of 111 reference human epigenomes, profiled for histone modification patterns, DNA accessibility, DNA methylation and RNA expression; the results annotate candidate regulatory elements in diverse tissues and cell types, their candidate regulators, and the set of human traits for which they show genetic variant enrichment, providing a resource for interpreting the molecular basis of human disease.

Scientists find that spongin, a key biomaterial in sponges, contains the same collagens as mammals and that these biocomposites contain brominated crosslinks. Now, the question: “Maybe we are all sponge to some degree?” is no longer so absurd.

The unique structure and mechanism of chanoclavine synthase (EasC), a haem catalase that uses superoxide for substrate transformation in ergot alkaloid biosynthesis, are revealed in this study, challenging established catalase mechanisms.

Photoemission experiments demonstrate that the photon number statistics of the exciting light can be imprinted on the emitted electrons, allowing the controlled generation of classical or non-classical electron number statistics of free electrons.

Analysis of snRNA genes in individuals with rare disorders identifies de novo and recurrent variants in RNU5B-1 and RNU5A-1, in addition to previously unreported cases with pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants in RNU4-2.

Functional materials that act as bio-sensing media when interfaced with complex bio-matter are attractive for health sciences and bio-engineering. Here, the authors report room temperature enzyme-mediated spontaneous hydrogen transfer between a perovskite quantum material and glucose reactions.

Adoptive T cell therapy has shown remarkable promise for the treatment of haematological malignancies. Here, the authors show that a cryogel platform for the simultaneous delivery of autologous T cells and recruitment of local antigen-presenting cells promotes long-lasting responses against solid tumours in mice.

Deconvolution methods infer levels of immune infiltration from bulk expression of tumour samples. Here, authors assess 6 published and 22 community-contributed methods via a DREAM Challenge using in vitro and in silico transcriptional profiles of admixed cancer and healthy immune cells.

A combined theoretical and experimental approach has been used to investigate the structure and bonding of an all-boron cluster (B₁₉⁻). Calculations suggest that the minimum energy structure is a near-planar one — in which a pentagonal B₆ unit is encircled by a larger B₁₃ ring — possessing two concentric aromatic π systems.

Long-term effects of fetal SSRI exposure—commonly prescribed to pregnant mothers who suffer from depression and anxiety—are unknown. Here, authors finds increased fear-related behaviors and matching brain circuit activation in both mice and humans.

Using data from a single time point, passenger-approximated clonal expansion rate (PACER) estimates the fitness of common driver mutations that lead to clonal haematopoiesis and identifies TCL1A activation as a mediator of clonal expansion.

Development of diamond-based quantum and electronic technologies requires heterogeneous integration, which has remained challenging. This work realizes direct bonding of single crystal diamond membranes to a broad range of technology-relevant substrates while maintaining quantum coherence for hosted qubits.

This flagship study from the European Solve-Rare Diseases Consortium presents a diagnostic framework including bioinformatic analysis of clinical, pedigree and genomic data coupled with expert panel review, leading to 500 new diagnoses in a cohort of 6,000 families with suspected rare diseases.

Current methods for synthesizing double-wall carbon nanotubes also produce single- and multi-wall nanotube impurities. Density gradient ultracentrifugation has now been used to separate double-wall nanotubes from such mixtures. The resulting material has distinct advantages over single-wall nanotubes when used in transparent conductors.

Reducing the signal-to-noise ratio is a never-ending challenge for many types of experiments. Now, improved ratios are reported for nuclear magnetic resonance set-ups combining an external high-Q resonator and a low-Q input coil.

The authors propose a non-Hermitian topological insulator with a real-valued energy spectrum based on a periodically driven Floquet model implemented in a photonic platform where generalized parity–time symmetry is protected against spontaneous symmetry breaking under a spatiotemporal gain and loss distribution.

Ready access to sugars in which the various hydroxyl groups are differentially protected will be of benefit in the production of vaccines, antibiotics and drugs. Here, a chemoenzymatic method that provides a direct route to such protected sugars is described.

Anti-TNF CAR macrophages show anti-inflammatory efficacy in both acute and chronic inflammatory disease mouse models.

The relative displacement of conducting molecules influences their electronic coupling and therefore the charge-transport properties of organic thin films. Electron diffraction patterns now reveal the dominant lattice vibrational modes in organic semiconductors with subnanometre precision and help predict the electronic behaviour of these materials.

Cancers evolve as they progress under differing selective pressures. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, the authors present the method TrackSig the estimates evolutionary trajectories of somatic mutational processes from single bulk tumour data.

iNTA combines interferometric detection of scattering with nanoparticle tracking analysis for determining the size and refractive index distributions of nanoparticles in suspension with high sensitivity and precision.

In mammals, two major non-centromeric histone H3 (H3.1/2 and H3.3) variants, display distinct nuclear distribution patterns across the genome and use distinct deposition pathways. Here the authors reveal insights on the nuclear distribution of H3.1 and H3.3 variants, focusing on their relative enrichment at chromocenters throughout the cell cycle and in different cellular states.

A lipid-nanoparticle-based formulation incorporating engineered lipids containing a blood–brain-barrier-crossing moiety effectively delivers mRNA to neurons and astrocytes following systemic administration in mice.

Wood density is a key control on tree biomass, and understanding its spatial variation improves estimates of forest carbon stock. Sullivan et al. measure >900 forest plots to quantify wood density and produce high resolution maps of its variation across South American tropical forests.